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Post by geode on Nov 30, 2019 16:48:16 GMT
I didn’t like it, because M is a man in the books and I didn’t think they should have made him a woman in the films. I am not really very keen on characters being given sex changes. I am a Fleming purist. The name "M" referred to a specific head of the British Secret Service, Sir Miles Messervy, not a nickname for the position. So if a woman was cast in the role the initial for the specific previous occupant should not have been used as the name of the character.
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Post by Vits on Nov 30, 2019 17:11:05 GMT
I am a Fleming purist. The name "M" referred to a specific head of the British Secret Service, Sir Miles Messervy, not a nickname for the position. So if a woman was cast in the role the initial for the specific previous occupant should not have been used as the name of the character. Judi Dench's M does have a different name. It just so happens it's the same initial.
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loofapotato
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Post by loofapotato on Dec 1, 2019 5:50:41 GMT
I am a Fleming purist. The name "M" referred to a specific head of the British Secret Service, Sir Miles Messervy, not a nickname for the position. So if a woman was cast in the role the initial for the specific previous occupant should not have been used as the name of the character. Judi Dench's M does have a different name. It just so happens it's the same initial. M's (Judi Dench) name is Olivia Mansfield.
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Post by louise on Dec 1, 2019 8:12:23 GMT
the Bond books quite often end in misfortune. In some of them, Moonraker for example, he doesn’t get the girl at the end. In From Russia With Love he is poisoned and nearly dies. He isn’t nearly such a superman as he is in the films. I have always wondered though why they kept the downbeat ending from Her Majesty’s Secret Service, because it doesn’t make much sense unless you have the looking for revenge story of You Only Live Twice which follows it. Seems very unlikely that Bond would just let it go. I heard that Ian Fleming said Bond wasn't a hero-he was a killing machine working for secret government agencies. I think while this may have been the intention, the basic image of a knight errant on adventures is timeless and the movies could not avoid presenting that idea even if not intended. It was trendy for late 60s movies to end on a downer. In the case of OYMSS I think the ending was appropriate given that it was a new Bond. ironically, by it being Lazenby's only film, it makes the ending more effective. Kind of Orpheus in the Underworld.
I suspect it would have come off badly if it was Connery or if Lazenby had returned for more.
Well, in the books Bond is basically a civil servant, he spends most of his time doing paperwork. But every now and again he gets to go and do something dangerous. That aspect was ignored in the films. I can’t imagine Bond placidly accepting his wife’s murder and not doing anything about it. They should just have dropped all the marriage and murder thing and have him cavorting about with Diana Rigg in the snow or something at the end.
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